The Liberal Party in Canberra will vote on whether to disendorse their lead Senate candidate after branch stacking claims emerged.
Jacob Vadakkedathu, a management consultant who was born in Kerala, India, was called into a meeting with senior party officials on Thursday about concerns he had signed up allies to win pre-selection, ABC News reported.
Branch stacking – where candidates enrol people into a political party branch, often paying for their memberships, in order to influence votes – is not illegal but can be against party rules.
The ACT Liberal branch has a qualification period of just three months, and only requires attendance at one meeting in order to be able to participate in pre-selection ballots.
A petition was presented to Liberal branch president Nick Tyrrell calling for a new pre-selection vote within 25 days due to concerns about the previous ballot, and on Friday Mr Tyrrell announced a new vote on ACT senate candidates would be held.
The new ballot will be held on February 1.
Mr Vadakkedathu told ABC News: “These are internal party matters and I have no comments to make. Thank you.”
According to his Liberal Party profile, Mr Vadakkedathu moved to Canberra in 1998 with his wife and two children, and has worked in both the public and private sectors.
He is currently the managing director of Maple Advisory Solutions, previously worked for KPMG and the Commonwealth Department of Finance, and was the founding president of the Federation of Indian Associations ACT.
Last year he attended multiple Deepavali celebrations in Canberra, including one hosted by Governor-General Sam Mostyn and attended by the Indian High Commissioner.
The Liberals’ current number two Senate candidate is South Korea-born Hayune Lee.
The ACT has two Senate seats, one held by Labor’s Katy Gallagher, and the other won by independent candidate David Pocock from the Liberal Party’s Zed Seselja in 2022.
Header image: Jacob Vadakkedathu with Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton (Facebook)
